Creative Writing About Shutter Island
I haven’t seen many Scorsese films, which I am ashamed of. Nor have I been able to finish a Lynch film. I have the gall to call myself a film buff, and I haven’t many of these so-called masters. But this review isn’t about David Lynch, it’s about fast-talking film entrepreneur Martin Scorsese. And there’s been Taxi Driver, The Departed, Casino and now Shutter Island that I’ve seen. One thing I have been able to pick up from his movies, is that his subject matter tends to be either disconnected people from society or gangsters. Shutter Island is the former and I feel it’s a bit like a cross between Taxi Driver and The Green Mile.
The year is 1954. Teddy (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a detective sent to Shutter Island, an island off the coast of America, that’s more or less an Alkatraz knock-off for the criminally insane. The only way on or off the island is a dock with a ferry. The institution is surrounded by a forest, electric fences, high brick walls, and lots of guys in guard uniforms with rifles. The in-mates are spooky fellows, one woman has a clear slit across her neck from where she presumably tried to off herself. Another is a dude with bumps and bruises, who rants and raves to himself in a corner. You know, the usual crazies. Teddy’s backed up by his partner, Chuck, played by Mark Ruffalo, whom I’ve liked since his wonderful work in Zodiac, the character of which he seems to have brought over to this movie. He refers to Teddy as ‘boss’, which I found puzzling, since he looks ten years older. And, with this, I was not too far off the truth, which I can’t reveal. Guess you’ll just have to see the film to know what I mean!
Onto plot. Teddy’s on the case, trying to find out what happened to a patient who escaped ‘without a trace’ from her room. Ben Kingsley is the mastermind behind the whole place, head-honcho psychiatrist, who has his side-kick Max Von Sydow (who increasingly looks like Christopher Plummer), both of which are equally off-putting and a little
The year is 1954. Teddy (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a detective sent to Shutter Island, an island off the coast of America, that’s more or less an Alkatraz knock-off for the criminally insane. The only way on or off the island is a dock with a ferry. The institution is surrounded by a forest, electric fences, high brick walls, and lots of guys in guard uniforms with rifles. The in-mates are spooky fellows, one woman has a clear slit across her neck from where she presumably tried to off herself. Another is a dude with bumps and bruises, who rants and raves to himself in a corner. You know, the usual crazies. Teddy’s backed up by his partner, Chuck, played by Mark Ruffalo, whom I’ve liked since his wonderful work in Zodiac, the character of which he seems to have brought over to this movie. He refers to Teddy as ‘boss’, which I found puzzling, since he looks ten years older. And, with this, I was not too far off the truth, which I can’t reveal. Guess you’ll just have to see the film to know what I mean!
Onto plot. Teddy’s on the case, trying to find out what happened to a patient who escaped ‘without a trace’ from her room. Ben Kingsley is the mastermind behind the whole place, head-honcho psychiatrist, who has his side-kick Max Von Sydow (who increasingly looks like Christopher Plummer), both of which are equally off-putting and a little